Those mods are absolutely optional. You don't need to do them all. If you don't know how to solve the "mouting my motherboard in the case" problem, well then don't do the cap mod. It's as easy as that. I even removed the cap-mod mysef after some time, because I didn't see any improvement with it.
BTW, I cut holes in my motherboard tray, to fit the board in the case without any problems.

btw i have a question if, can i ask , about soldering, how did u do that , i mean so neat,precise,great. ... (wow in such small things how did u do that , alas )

i some times try do solder some bigger things & face prob .

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Of course you are allowed to ask. That's what the forums are there for.
It's nearly all about practice. Start with easy soldering jobs (cables, then old hardware and so on). Slowly work your way forward.
I couldn't solder very well at the beginning, and I don't consider myself a soldering pro today either. It's OK, but I'm far from being perfect.

So, start with simple things and keep on working on your technique. That way, it won't take too long until you'll be able to solder SMD chips like that.

Well, and one factor that needs to be mentioned is the soldering iron. If you got a good one, it's much easier, and if you got a bad one, it's damn hard (yes, even for me ).
I don't use a soldering station or even special SMD soldering iron or something like that. As written in my how-to, I used an Ersa 25W Soldering iron (ERSA Multitip C25) with an Ersadur longlife soldering tip (about 30$ for the iron and the tip together) for all the mods described in the article. I use that iron for nealy all my hardware mods, and I didn't face a single problem with it until today.

So, good luck. And, please don't start your soldering career with trying to solder SMD/SMT parts. This won't work for sure. Better take your time and do it well. That's my motto most of the time.

Thx, I hope I can make my future articles even better. There are some points that need to be improved next time.

@Anarion:

Well, the idea behind the cold-heat soldering iron is good, but for use on motherboards it's not really a appropriate solution. I read a review and some user experiences and the general opinion was: "Good for soldering wires etc., but not really useable on motherboards or other hardware components for vmods and such."

@ Celemine1gig: the Cold Heat irons create heat by way of arcing electricity between the two points of the tip through whatever it is applied to. Now, I have never read of anyone using one on a computer part like this, but it's possible that it will not damage anything because the electrical flow does not, I think, travel anywhere past the tip of the iron. I personally use a fine tip 15W grounded iron which is perfect, but in a pinch a 25 or even 35 watter can get the job done, provided you have more steady hands than I

Anyhow, I must say that I have not done any of the above mods, so I have not witnessed the effects yet. Let me get that across that I am not an expert with these mods, so what is below may be incorrect, but I would like to bring to your attention a couple of discrepancies I have found with it and an originating thread I first found about these mods, because this is a nicely laid out article with great clear pics as visual aid.

First is that the article shows that the three SMD resistor replacement mod (3.3~5.2K to replace stock 2.2K) is the VDroop mod, but the thread in question shows these resistors to affect the Over Current Protection, which results in worse fluctuations than stock without the VDrop mod that involves using one leg of a 50K pot on the same VR pin as the VCore mod (pin 7) with the other leg on the end toroid core, and reducing resistance to stabilize the voltage, but will also reduce overall VCore, even below the BIOS setting, so the VCore mod is required to offset this.

Second is that the Over Voltage Protection mod, a.k.a. VSense, is required for >=2.1v and not <2.1v as in the article.

Lastly, I would like to ask if lapping the northbridge gained you anything because I've tried everything from endless alpha timing tweakage to the pin mod to default FSB @ 166 and even voodoo magic, and my board just won't run well above 220MHz with a gig of BH-5 (yes, tried CPC off and loosest timings possible and three different good PSU's). Right now I have a lapped Zalman ZM-NB32j with a 40mm fan on the NB and it did jack, so maybe lapping the chipset itself might help. Strangely, Memtest will run all day without any problems at above 230MHz, but either Windows won't boot, or 3D crashes to desktop. The 166 FSB pinmod just made it so that parts of levels disappear in the old UT and UT2k3 and eventually freeze at above ~215MHz rather than always CTD

About the cold-heat: Try it and then we'll see if it does any harm to hardware parts. I sure won't be the one to test that.

dopeyman said:

...
First is that the article shows that the three SMD resistor replacement mod (3.3~5.2K to replace stock 2.2K) is the VDroop mod, but the thread in question shows these resistors to affect the Over Current Protection, which results in worse fluctuations than stock without the VDrop mod that involves using one leg of a 50K pot on the same VR pin as the VCore mod (pin 7) with the other leg on the end toroid core, and reducing resistance to stabilize the voltage, but will also reduce overall VCore, even below the BIOS setting, so the VCore mod is required to offset this.

Second is that the Over Voltage Protection mod, a.k.a. VSense, is required for >=2.1v and not <2.1v as in the article.

Could be that it's overcurent protection and not Vdroop, but according to the datasheet this should be Vdroop if I remember correctly. I don't own the board anymore, so I won't do any further research.

And about the OVP, I don't really get what you are talking about. In my article it clearly says "for VCore higher than 2V". So what?

Please quote my original article if I'm missing something.

dopeyman said:

Lastly, I would like to ask if lapping the northbridge gained you anything because I've tried everything from endless alpha timing tweakage to the pin mod to default FSB @ 166 and even voodoo magic, and my board just won't run well above 220MHz with a gig of BH-5 (yes, tried CPC off and loosest timings possible and three different good PSU's). Right now I have a lapped Zalman ZM-NB32j with a 40mm fan on the NB and it did jack, so maybe lapping the chipset itself might help. Strangely, Memtest will run all day without any problems at above 230MHz, but either Windows won't boot, or 3D crashes to desktop. The 166 FSB pinmod just made it so that parts of levels disappear in the old UT and UT2k3 and eventually freeze at above ~215MHz rather than always CTD

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Too long ago since I had the board here. I only remember that it was stable at 260Mhz. Can't tell you more as I modded the board right after I got it. Did no tests with the board still at stock. Experiment with the mods and then see which help in your case and which don't. I'm no magician, so I won't be able to tell you what will help in your case. Fiddling around with all parts is the way to go, if you don't have a suspect that you blame the bad OC on.

The answer above was written by me. Damn forum here let's you write replies without prompting you to log in. I often forget that.

BTW, one last thing to add:

Often, BIOS is the key to stable overclocking on that DFI board. Try lots of bios versions and perhaps you'll find one that will let you overclock higher than before. Had this happen to me often on Nforce2 boards. So give it a try.

BTW, had a look at the datasheets today. Vdroop is part of the Overcurrent protection. The resistors are connected to the current sensing pins. By changing the resitor values, we let more current flow through and decrease Vdroop that way. That's all. And that's why some call it OCP-mod and some vdroop-mod.

hehe, such is the response I've only seen about Cold Heat on a motherboard I think I'll leave that hot potato on the table!

Could be that it's overcurent protection and not Vdroop, but according to the datasheet this should be Vdroop if I remember correctly. I don't own the board anymore, so I won't do any further research.

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hmm, I wonder if they may be related..? For example, I think the VDroop mod for the NF7-S involves three resistors (tictac mod IIRC) and can even be done with a pencil, and the last of the three resistors overvolts (possibly relieves OCP a bit?) VCore. --Just saw your update on the DS, that's a great explanation, thank you

And about the OVP, I don't really get what you are talking about. In my article it clearly says "for VCore higher than 2V". So what?

Please quote my original article if I'm missing something.

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Sorry about that, I meant that the Vlad thread discussed that OVP is required for more than 2.1 and not 2.0 that the article says. In the BIOS, it would show as a max of 2.08 before the OVP would kick in. That .1v might be just what some users need without adding another pot for OVP *shrug* Just something I noticed.

Too long ago since I had the board here. I only remember that it was stable at 260Mhz. Can't tell you more as I modded the board right after I got it. Did no tests with the board still at stock. Experiment with the mods and then see which help in your case and which don't. I'm no magician, so I won't be able to tell you what will help in your case. Fiddling around with all parts is the way to go, if you don't have a suspect that you blame the bad OC on.

Good luck with you board.

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Wow, that was a nice OC! When I got mine I was hoping for 240, maybe 250 with CPC off because of my dual-banked BH-5 sticks, but it has been an uphill battle >8) I finally decided to scrap the warranty and just hardwire it which is what made me interested in these mods, to try for some better CPU speeds because my 1700+ can do more, just needs some more of and stable juice.

Often, BIOS is the key to stable overclocking on that DFI board. Try lots of bios versions and perhaps you'll find one that will let you overclock higher than before. Had this happen to me often on Nforce2 boards. So give it a try.

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Thanks for your insight and wishes, I think I'll have to end up tying a BIOS onto a stick and see if it'll chase after it.

BTW, had a look at the datasheets today. Vdroop is part of the Overcurent protection. The resistors are connected to the current sensing pins. By changing the resitor values, we let more curent flow through and decrease Vdroop that way. That's all. And that's why some call it OVC mod and some vdroop mod.

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Interesting, thanks for going through it. I like knowing as much as possible about mods before I do 'em so this is a great help.

people sorry to put thi thread up,but I did the vdimm mod to my board [no me,a friend of mine]

but now I notice that my ram [old skool bh5 ocz's] need much more volts to be stable..for example,before the vmods I needed 3.0v for 233 prime stable and 3.3v for 234 memtest stable,
now I need about 3.3v do 230 stable (still testing :X ) any idea?the thimings and alphas are the same,the bios is the same,the mems are the same..everything is equal..
and now the system is watercooled...
the only thing that I am seeing is that I "lapped" the sb..not heavy llaping,just to take of some superglue..that it had..